California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law a statute that prohibits employers from seeking salary-history information about an applicant for employment. Including compensation and benefits information, the prohibition applies to both salary-history inquiries and those made by an agency acting on behalf of an employer. It also prohibits employers from relying in whole or in part on salary-history information about an applicant in determining job eligibility or the salary that may be offered. If an applicant voluntarily discloses such information, the employer may take those details into consideration. California joins Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Puerto Rico in barring or restricting pre-employment inquiries about salary history.
